iPods Download Lightning?

An iPod won’t attract lightning, but it will make your injuries worse if you are struck by it, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. A 35 year-old man was brought into the emergency room after having been struck by lightning that had jumped to his body after striking a tree, a phenomenon known as “side flash.”

His jaw was broken and both ear drums punctured. He suffered burns along both sides of his neck “corresponding to the positions of his earphones at the time of the lightning strike.” He also suffered a rare injury to the bones inside his ears that lead the doctors to conclude that the “the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to, and through, the patient’s head.” Lovely.

So if you’re jogging and it looks stormy, you might want to consider taking your iPod off or “dislocation of the incudomalleolar joint” could happen to you.

Happened here in the Vancouver area if I recall. Lightning here isn’t really all that frequent an occurence, and its always possible that he was heading back home when he got hit. If I recall from the new report, it was a really strange scenario.

Its a simple matter that the iPod’s wiring is way more conductive than the human body, skin doesn’t actually conduct electricity very well but blood conducts electricity very well. It would have to have gone up the wires into his ears because going from the thin flesh in his inner ear and through his -entire- body, was easier than punching through his body from the side (which doesn’t make much scientific sense to me… I would think lightning would go -right- down your sweat-damp skin rather than take the ‘long’ route up your body and then ‘back’ down through you to the ground…

I’m sure it doesnt’ matter what device you’re wearing. It could be an iPod, walkman, CD player, cell phone, etc. It’s more fun to say iPod than “Personal audio device” so that’s what people say, nevermind that it makes it seem like only iPods are affected by this.

My local newspaper (St. Paul Pioneer Press) decided to run this story on yesterday’ss front page. My letter to the editor, in response:

Kudos to the Pioneer Press for alerting us to the dangers of wearing an iPod in a thunderstorm. I’m glad the Pioneer Press decided to run ‘iPods: God Will Smite You’ on page 1A instead of real news: Such idiocy displayed prominently below the fold serves as an excellent forewarning to readers who prefer actual news in their newspaper.

And I hold the same for any media outlet that publishes this story: it’s a freak occurrence; it’s not “news”, it’s tabloid sensationalism.

In anticipation of a world-wide ipod recall, I will valiantly take early action. Please send me your own, your children’s and friends’ ipods, in return for my promise that this will never happen again. Do it now, you may save a life!